SC - Overdone Digits

[Mike C. Baker]

- ---Irissa Mitchell <IrissaM at stlabs.com> wrote:
> PS How do you keep from burning your fingers constantly?!? ;-) 

GOOD potholders, wooden / non-metallic handles, experience, rapid
first aid treatments, and luck.

(Disclaimer: The following offering is a matter of practical
discussion, not necessarily related to any specific research into
historical practices.)

If the vessel in question is in the (hot) oven, always use a good
potholder. BBQ mitts are my suggestion for handling heavy / awkward
cooking vessels. In camp cooking, I'll often have both heavy leather
gloves and pot mitts or pot holders on hand. (Drat - that really was
an unintentional pun, people!) 

On the stovetop / cookfire, keep the handle(s) as far from heat as
practical -- and use a potholder.

Good potholder = multiple layers of non-heat-conducting natural
materials, preferably dry. Bad potholders include single layers of
cloth, thin wet cloth, most man-made fibers, and most of the knitted
/ crocheted "fancies" (use those as cloth trivets, or as layers in a
good potholder). Some of the best home-made potholders I've ever
seen use 10-12 layers of cotton broadcloth and have a "rolled" seam
around the outside; next on the list used two or three layers of
wool knit sandwiched between a couple of outer layers of cotton. 

Carefully inspect any heirloom potholders or trivet-thingies you
might have and seal away any that included asbestos as an ingredient
to display on the wall / mantle / knick-knack rack (Zip-locks or
seal-a-meal bags, or other more professional enclosed framing
materials, should be enough.)

Even when the built-in handle for a pot is metal or has also been in
the oven / too close to the flames, add-on / supplemental handles
may be the answer.  The recent discussion about pot hangers & lid
lifters provides some starting points. Check the gadget aisle at
your local supermarket, the toys in a cooking store, or the pages of
various catalogs for alternatives.  

Two long poles and several husky folk may be the best way to move
that cauldron from over the fire when you have the people available,
and the method can be adapted for any pot of similar shape (wider at
top than at some point along the sides). 

Rapid first-aid: as long as the skin is still intact, submerge
burned area under running water or in ice water (direct contact with
ice is not as good as swishing the injured member through icewater).
Unless it is nearly ice-cold, butter or oil should not be used for
first aid if running water is available (the oil traps heat, the
water dissipates). 

> Maybe I am just a clutz.
 
Naw, probably just haven't offered sufficient libations to the
Kitchen Powers yet ... and I have it on good authority that the
Kitchen Idiot around here drinks almost anything except
jalapeno-flavored beverages, over-spiced cinnamon concoctions, &
coffee. At least once. Usually twice (the first round may have just
been a batch made on a bad day!)

Amra, 
Kitchen Idiot in the hierarchy of the 
Cathedral of the Cheesey Salamander
===
Adieu -- Amra / Pax ... Kihe / TTFN -- Mike
(al-Sayyid) Amr ibn Majid al-Bakri al-Amra  /
Kihe Blackeagle (the Dreamsinger Bard) / 
Mike C. Baker: My opinions are my own -- no one else would want them!
Homepage: http://www.geocities.com/Area51/8661
Alt. e-mail: KiheBard at aol.com, MikeCBaker at aol.com



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